|
For those who have not completed games in the Xenoblade Chronicles series, this page contains spoilers regarding the plot. Discretion is advised. |
- "Fighting in order to live. And living to fight. That's the way of our world, Aionios."
- — Noah
Aionios (Japanese: アイオニオン, Aionion) is the world and setting of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Future Redeemed.
Overview
It is a world where the nations of Keves and Agnus are locked in an endless war to fight in order to prolong Z's "endless now". It is a world where the peoples of the Bionis and Mechonis and the peoples of Alrest have come together.[1]
History
The Two Worlds Draw Near
An unknown amount of time after the events of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the worlds of Bionis and Alrest, two worlds created from Klaus using the Conduit to split the original world in two, began to merge back into one universe in a process that would destroy them both as they combined, due to the worlds being composed of opposing types of matter, an event known as the Intersection. Having made contact with each other as their worlds drew nearer, Melia and Nia formed a plan that would allow their people and cultures to survive and rebuild. They would each construct one half of an ark known as Origin that contained all of their societies' knowledge and their citizens' literal souls, which would allow them to be reborn after their worlds were reconstructed and then separated back into their original states. Origin was constructed using the Ontos core of the Trinity Processor as its foundation.
However, Z, a being born from humanity's fears of an uncertain future and their desire for stability, stopped both worlds in their tracks, froze them in time, preventing Origin from activating. Aionios was born, and Z delivered to the world what they sought. A world frozen in time, where the future annihilation that was soon to arrive would only be a distant memory, and world where "the future" wouldn't exist.
Two Worlds Frozen in Time
Melia was captured and placed into slumber by Z in order to secure its control over Origin (albeit not before she was able to craft the Sword of the End, a weapon capable of harming Z), but Nia managed to escape, along with Poppi, and made plans for future heroes to end Z's domination and free their worlds before entering stasis herself in the Cloudkeep, while Poppi entered a supercomputer that would keep Nia updated on the world during her sleep. However, before going into stasis, Nia used the little energy from Origin she still had access to alongside her own Core Crystal to create the Ouroboros Stones to combat the Consuls.
In Nia and Melia's absence, Z created mechanical duplicates to act as the queens of the nations of Keves and Agnus, with their people's souls being used as templates for clone lines of child soldiers whose brief lives would be too focused on fighting the endless war between the nations to question the true nature of their world. The war itself would produce both stasis and the stimulation required to prevent anyone with the power to change anything from desiring to do so out of boredom. Z (alongside X and Y) then approached a handful of dead and dying individuals who it had found sufficiently amusing, offering them immortality (at the expense of making them dependent on life energy stolen from other beings, namely that of the clone soldiers) and permission to entertain themselves as they wished so long as they aided in upholding the status quo it created. These became its Consuls and act as its agents on Aionios in order to ensure the continuation of its "endless now" at all costs.
However, Aionios was still unstable. Though the new world didn't immediately self-annihilate, it would be gradually destroyed by smaller random Annihilation Events, miniature portents of the Intersection. In each case, Black Fog would gradually accumulate in an area, signifying that an Annihilation Event would eventually occur. Pieces of solid terrain fragmented by Annihilation Events would remain floating mid-air rather than collapsing into the new void itself.
Alpha and the Ark
At an unknown point in time, Ontos, now calling himself "Alpha", re-emerged to take control of Origin's systems for himself. Having determined that the future had no place for the beings of the old worlds, he planned to destroy Aionios while bringing the new lives born there to another world, where no traces of the past would remain. Shulk, Rex, and Z confronted Alpha, but were blown away. Afterward, Shulk and Rex agreed to a ceasefire with Z until Alpha was dealt with. Shulk and Rex then formed the Liberators, with their base of operations being Colony 9.
Over a decade later, Alpha's core is found by Na'el on the shore of Corne Island in Erythia Sea, which she brings with her to the City. Z takes notice of this and, realizing that Alpha is taking action, sends N to kill all the Citizens and destroy the City to deprive Alpha of the lives he needs to create a new world, offering to revive his love as M for carrying out his wish. When N began to raze the City, Alpha inhabits Na'el's body and gets her to gather many of the Citizens in order to send them to The Ark of Origin. Na'el is confronted by N, and the two fight. As N is about to finish off Na'el, Ghondor, N and M's son and Na'el's grandfather, jumps in the way of N, resulting in him getting fatally stabbed. However, before passing, Ghondor activates his Ouroboros power and uses it on Na'el, resulting in an explosion of energy that allows Ontos's discarded conscience to break free from Alpha and manifest as a being known as A.
After his confrontation with the party and N at Raguel Lake, Alpha uses Prison Island's defense mechanisms to summon Origin. The party travels to the Prison Terrace on Prison Island to get inside Origin, but are confronted by N on the terrace. As N and Matthew fight, Matthew's Ouroboros Knuckles release a beam of light that makes contact with Origin, allowing the party to catch a glimpse of a memory of Origin showing how N truly felt when he destroyed the City. N stands down and allows the party to pass.
As Matthew begins to head toward the portal leading inside Origin, Alpha appears above everyone and releases a massive wave of energy that takes the party into Origin's memory stage within the Ark, which the party was directly underneath. Due to Alpha's memories, Origin's memory stage takes on the appearance of the Land of Morytha and the World Tree in their original states in the original world before Klaus split the world in two. The party find Na'el playing a piano and playing with children while a news report plays on a Radio. A shows Na'el the ruined Land of Morytha after the experiment and tells her what really happened to the original world, convincing her to not follow Alpha. However, Alpha captures Na'el and dispels the memory before fighting the party. During the fight, Alpha locates the turmoil lingering within Matthew, and attempts to pull in Matthew, but is stopped by N, releasing Na'el from Alpha's grasp in the process. With the party joining forces with N, Alpha decides to eliminate Matthew along with all older lives and transforms into a giant humanoid-entity.
Avatars of Origin
N grants Matthew the power of his Sword of the End, telling him to transfer it into his "Fists of the End". Activating the power of Pneuma's core from inside his Gauntlets, Matthew strikes the Sword of the End, resulting in Matthew, Na'el, Nikol, Glimmer, Shulk, and Rex all Interlinking into a single giant Ouroboros. With the power of Ouroboros, the party defeats Alpha, resulting in Alpha's demise.
With Alpha gone, Origin needs a new avatar to keep Aionios stable, with those avatars being Shulk, Rex, and A. After gifting Glimmer and Nikol the life force to live a full life, the three of them walk into a large rift, telling them that the three of them will be waiting for them at the far edge of time.
Afterwards, Origin's systems briefly fail, causing Origin to crash into the Cent-Omnia Region below, which destroys the region, and resulting in Origin sinking into the ocean. Eventually, a vortex formed around Origin, preventing anything from approaching it without being ripped apart.
Escaping the "Endless Now"
After the Ouroboros party learns about Origin from Nia in the Cloudkeep and Samon upgrades the Boundary into the Bravery, they are able to reach Origin without getting killed. N confronts the party in an effort to stop them from saving Melia, but following his defeat Noah persuades him to let go of his regrets and merge with him like M did with Mio. Melia is freed, and she explains that Z is not a person so much as a physical manifestation of humanity's fear of the future and desire for stability, before she returns to Keves Castle for the final assault on Origin. With her encouragement, the party defeats X and Y for the final time before meeting Z in the Amphitheater.
After battling him, Noah destroys the Amphitheater with Lucky Seven, which enrages Z, causing him to reveal his true form, Z∞, whose nature as an incarnate desire leaves it incapable of understanding why the party would ever reject its "endless now", which it claims is humanity's greatest wish. Origin then begins to blindly bombard all of Aionios in a desperate attempt to preserve Moebius' control over the world. Nia, Melia, and the City mobilize their forces for an assault on Origin. After Z∞ is defeated, it tries to force Aionios to self-destruct in a final effort to deny the world a future that it cannot personally control, but is stopped by the spirits of N and M, who are the only ones capable of ensuring Z's annihilation as they are manifested desires themselves. With the destruction of Z and Moebius, Origin is reactivated, and the party decides to proceed with the reconstruction process of both worlds, returning the worlds of the Bionis and Alrest to their original states from before Aionios was created. The two worlds, no longer made up of opposing types of matter, merge in earnest, restoring the world to what it was before it was divided by Klaus but still preserving the inhabitants of the old worlds.
Places
- Aetia Region
- Fornis Region
- Pentelas Region
- Keves Castle Region
- Cadensia Region
- Swordmarch
- Agnus Castle Region
- Origin
- Cent-Omnia Region
Colonies
- Colony 9
- Colony Gamma
- Colony 4
- Colony 30
- Colony Iota
- Colony Lambda
- Colony Tau
- Colony 5
- Colony 11
- Colony Mu
- Colony 15
- Lost Colony
- Colony Omega
- Colony 0
- Fort O'Virbus
Etymology
In Greek, Aionios (αἰώνιος) can mean "Without beginning or end, what has always been and will always be", "Without beginning" or "Without end, never ceasing, eternal". This is a reference to Z's intentions of creating Aionios as an unchanging world. In-universe, its name means "eternity" according to Noah.
Trivia
- The way humans have a time limit in Aionios before they die, as well as Noah and the rest of Ouroborus trying to prevent this, is almost identical to the plot of the 1976 film, Logan's Run, and the book it was based on.
- Almost every human in Aionios has similarities to Kahran Ramsus from Xenogears. Like Ramsus, they are clones who are manipulated and abused by the villains of the game for their own gain.
Gallery
Videos
References
| Regions of Aionios in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 | |
|---|---|
| Regions | Aetia Region · Fornis Region · Pentelas Region · Keves Castle Region · Cadensia Region · Swordmarch · City · Agnus Castle Region · Origin · Amidst Fog · Land of Challenge · Cent-Omnia Region |
| Colonies | Colony 9 · Colony Gamma · Colony 4 · Colony Iota · Colony 30 · Colony Lambda · Colony Tau · Colony 11 · Keves Castle · Colony Mu · Colony 15 · Lost Colony · Agnus Castle · Colony Omega · Colony 0 · Fort O'Virbus |